Fourth gunshot death of year stuns neighbors

Thursday

Jun 20, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 20, 2013 at 6:45 PM

One man was killed and a second was shot in the leg.

By F.T. NortonFran.Norton@StarNewsOnline.com

Ruby Jacobs heard a volley of gunshots early Thursday morning, but didn't want to look outside her Sixth Street window. Having buried her own son who was gunned down on 31st Street more than a decade ago, the Wilmington native knew all too well what heartache could lie at the end of those cracks. Jacobs was right – about 1:30 a.m. Jeffrey Henry, 17, was shot dead in her neighbor's yard, the fourth victim this year of the violent gun play that haunts the Port City's nights. “This is Wilmington,” she offered as a sad explanation Thursday as she sat on her tidy porch on a quiet, friendly street where the neighbors know one another. By 8 a.m., the police were gone, and on the block between Marstellar and Meares streets where Jacobs' 5-year-old great-grandson rides his little bicycle, the people who lived there were beginning their day after a sleepless night. Next door to Jacobs, Hampton Colclough, 63, a retired corrections officer, also was asleep when he heard some 10 rounds of gunfire. Colclough said he did look outside, but not seeing anything, went back to lay down. A short time later, police were at his door. Colclough pointed to the area of his yard where Henry had died. He surmised the teen had run from the unfenced backyard down the narrow space between Colclough's house and the next before falling just beneath the edge of a gnarly old pine tree out front. The siding of Colclough's cottage was nicked by a errant bullet. According to police, another man, whose name was not released, was found with a gunshot wound to the leg in the backyard of the same house at 1217 Sixth St. “I guess they were shooting at each other,” Colclough said. Wilmington Police Department spokeswoman Lucy Crockett said the surviving man was treated and released from New Hanover Regional Medical Center, and was being interviewed by detectives. Officers recovered two guns from the scene, Capt. Tom Witkowski said. But police are “still trying to figure out” how the incident unfolded.Henry's death caused a flurry of activity on social media. “It's crazy how me and DD was just talking to this man. How we was just talking yesterday, laughing and stuff, and now he just gone,” one person wrote on her Twitter account.Other friends of Henry cried out for the violence to stop. “If you gotta resort to gang violence, that mean you not strong enough to hold your own. And if you gotta shoot, you just weak. Weak mentally an physically an emtionally,” one person wrote. “Not my lil bruh, Jeff, man. Now it's gettin' outta hand. Think about ppl families...Lord be with us,” another person wrote..On Tuesday, it will be 12 years since Jacobs' child, Stephen Wayne Sidberry, 30, was killed. His killer was never found. “That's why I didn't come outside last night and try to see what was going on,” she said. Even in a new age, the senseless killings just continue, and Jacobs – still grieving her own loss – could only shake her head as she thought of another mother hearing the same words she had so long ago. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Wilmington Police Department at (910) 343-3600. Information also may be submitted anonymously through Text-A-Tip. Enter Tip708 and the information, and send to 274637 (CRIMES).